There exists a perfectly plausible timeline where Mattis ends up president and in a couple years we'll be seeing Mad Dog 2020 campaign signs. Which is exactly the kind of stupid shit I've come to count on ever since we apparently slid out of the universe where they can spell fucking Berenstein correctly.

It is as if, after having an unrelated disagreement over movie trivia in a bar, Trump has challenged Usain Bolt to a 100-yard dash or John Cena to a cage match to the death.

But their unique partnership, one of the closest working relationships the top ranks of the Justice Department have ever seen, was truly forged in the crucible of post-9/11 Washington, when threats loomed large and the stress of tracking and preventing unfolding plots dominated the federal government. “The fire hose every morning hit the FBI director, the attorney general and then the president,” Comey recalled to me.

The twice-daily threat briefings, the flood of intelligence reports throughout the rest of the day, the panicked lurches and fruitless counterterror raids, had a profound effect on the principals involved in the years after 9/11. One night, after another day spent running down a possible terrorist weapon of mass destruction, Comey was dropped off by his security detail at his house outside Washington. He recalled to me years later that he’d stopped on the walk, noticing a light still burned inside; upstairs his five kids were already asleep. As he walked up the path to his front door, he paused for a moment and tested the wind’s direction, mentally calculating whether radioactive fallout from Washington would blow toward his family. I wonder whether my kids will be safe until the morning, Comey thought; then he realized just how paranoid he had become. As he recalls, “Your mind comes to be dominated by the horrific consequences of low-probability events.”

Yet even amid the stress of that time, Comey didn’t hesitate to force the issue of STELLAR WIND, standing up to the vice president. During one White House meeting, Comey said he couldn’t find a legal basis for the program.

“Others see it differently,” a scowling Cheney replied.

“The analysis is flawed—in fact, fatally flawed. No lawyer reading that could reasonably rely on it,” Comey said, his hand sweeping across the table dismissively.

Cheney’s counsel, the famously aggressive David Addington, standing in the back of the room, spoke up: “Well, I’m a lawyer,” he snapped, “and I did.”

Sharkey wrote:There exists a perfectly plausible timeline where Mattis ends up president and in a couple years we'll be seeing Mad Dog 2020 campaign signs. Which is exactly the kind of stupid shit I've come to count on ever since we apparently slid out of the universe where they can spell fucking Berenstein correctly.

Nah, Orrin Hatch looks clean.

Imagine being Mitt Romney and 4 years after your last run a major constitutional crisis makes Orrin Hatch the first Mormon President.

Sharkey wrote:There exists a perfectly plausible timeline where Mattis ends up president and in a couple years we'll be seeing Mad Dog 2020 campaign signs. Which is exactly the kind of stupid shit I've come to count on ever since we apparently slid out of the universe where they can spell fucking Berenstein correctly.

Nah, Orrin Hatch looks clean.

Yeah, but he's also 83 years old; I can definitely come up with a few scenarios where he's removed from the order of succession that qualify as "perfectly plausible".

...I'm gone for a few days and this is the first thing I say in this thread when I get back? Yeah, I'm disappointed in me too.

Seriously, though, I don't know what the fuck to add to all the crazy shit that keeps coming out other than "What the fucking fuck?"

...I do have something else to bring up, though: I'm concerned that we're not seeing nearly as much coverage of Republican attempts to sabotage the census as we should be. This is a serious long-term threat; gerrymandering and disenfranchising minorities are the GOP's best shot at keeping power, and that's true no matter what happens to Trump. (I'm still holding out hope that his escalating scandals lead to a Democratic landslide in '18, but it's not going to be easy, and a census that doesn't correctly reflect the diversity of the US population means another decade of districts that look a whole lot like the ones we've got, or even worse.)

Every time you post it makes me laugh because of your god damn avatar. Jesus thank you for that. I was feeling a bit ill and then I saw this and went back and started reading other posts you made. Fucking hell that Kerbal is great. I know it's off topic, just wanted to say I loved it. Shit made me laugh so hard I almost died.

Yeah, he's great, but a bit too on-the-nose. I use the radio as a morning alarm, so that usually means one of the first things I hear waking up is what crazy bullshit The Bastard has said in the past few hours. Centrifuge Kerbal just about sums up the feeling.

: Mention something from KPCC or Rachel Maddow: Go on about Homeworld for X posts

malikial wrote:Every time you post it makes me laugh because of your god damn avatar. Jesus thank you for that. I was feeling a bit ill and then I saw this and went back and started reading other posts you made. Fucking hell that Kerbal is great. I know it's off topic, just wanted to say I loved it. Shit made me laugh so hard I almost died.